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Hamlet Movie Review

Hamlet is a 1948 British drama film directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. It is one of the most renowned adaptations of this play for many great reasons. It’s a classic.

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“To be or not to be: that is the question“

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This is truly an outstanding adaptation. What Olivier did so cleverly here is reduce the runtime of the original play from 4 hours to a movie version of two and a half hours. I do realize that Shakespeare purists may have contentions with the plot and character omissions, but I personally did not miss any single element that he excluded. Are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern really necessary for this story after all? I propose that they aren’t.

This is, thus, a much more streamlined version of the story that works in the film format spectacularly. The plot is besides those exclusions mostly very faithful. Every single major plot point is retained in dialogue and imagery. The highlights include the superb skull scene, all of the action set pieces that were quite cinematic and of course the first ghost meeting scene. That ghost scene is beautifully eerie and otherworldly.

The themes are also retained, though obviously the film could never compete in this area with the original work itself. I only have one issue in this department and that is the opening line that signifies that this is all about Hamlet the character’s indecision and how that doomed him. Although you can see that in the play as well, I would counter that this should not be how you take this story as quite the opposite is the case – life is too difficult and complicated for all of us, so it’s difficult to make decisions that will be right for any of us. This was my main problem with this otherwise stellar production.

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Jean Simmons was very good as Ophelia, though her overall demeanor was a bit too childlike for my taste. Felix Aymer as Polonius and Basil Sydney as Claudius are the standouts of the supporting cast. But the best of the bunch has to be Eileen Herlie whose Gertrude felt very much alive and quite unforgettable. All of her moments were genuine scene-stealers.

As for Laurence Olivier himself, I actually find his directing to be stronger than his acting here, but still his Oscar win for acting is deserved as he was the best of the nominees by far (though of course the snubbed Bogart was better). Olivier was always a bit too theatrical in his acting style, so this role fit him like a glove. In particular he sold the mad scenes very well. It’s a charismatic, charming and memorable performance and one of the actor’s best.

This Hamlet is worth seeing for the splendid audio-visuals alone. The score is very beautiful and elegant, the sound is excellent and the movie is very well edited and paced. The highlights are the production design, cinematography and costumes. The costumes feel very authentic to the time period that the film depicts while the sets are uniformly gorgeous, meticulously detailed and at times genuinely striking to behold.

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The black-and-white cinematography is especially astonishing – it is polished, stark and highly artistic, making great use of its labyrinthine castle to literally trap its protagonist. The noir and German expressionism influences are evident here – the fog, the shadows, the lighting – all of it worked in unison to create this genuinely creepy, noirish atmosphere. It’s a great 40s take on this story that not only worked, but in its cinematic look and feel it felt like a true movie and not just a filmed play.